Union Health Ministry asks 62 private hospitals to consider starting Medical Colleges

New Delhi: Considering the resources private hospitals can bring in the aspect of uplifting the medical education sector of the country, the Union Health Minister has urged 62 top charity private hospitals to start imparting MBBS and PG medical courses. If everything goes as hoped by the Centre, around 20 of these hospitals will likely begin courses this academic year.

This proposed move is aimed at adding more seats which will help in providing quality and affordable medical education in India as the wide range of health infrastructure already available at these top institutions can be utilised towards learning by medical students.

Therefore, to mollify the whole process for these private establishments, the Centre has promised to ease paperwork and relax some norms.

According to the ANI report, recently, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya held a meeting with around 62 well-known charity private hospitals which have not started medical education and asked them to start undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses.

Hospitals including Apollo hospitals, Amrita Hospitals, Anandamayi, Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai, Jaslok hospital in Mumbai, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital hospitals had attended the meeting wherein they discussed the documentation and criterion of the government related to land, beds, infrastructure, rules and much more.

“We have urged these widely topmost hospitals to start medical colleges for medical education to Indian students so that they do not go abroad for medical studies,” Mandaviya stated.

As per the officials, many of the hospitals have already submitted their applications and those that pass the inspections will take in students from the current academic year. However, there is reluctance from the hospitals in terms of excessive paperwork and norms related to requirements of land and infrastructure, on which the Minister has promised relaxation.

“Earlier, big hospitals were not keen to start medical colleges as they did not want to get into tedious paperwork. The land and seat allotment criteria were also stringent. We have tweaked a few of these criteria to invite more engagement from private and charitable organisations,” he further said, as quoted by The Hindu.

“Good private hospitals were not interested in training students; the hospital was their business. There are four or five such hospitals in every city. Now, they have agreed to start courses,” the Minister added.

The Minister has also undertaken one round of meetings with hospitals and it is expected that 12- 13 hospitals may start medical education this year, adds ANI.

“With specialised services available at the hospitals, most would begin with training PG students. But some will introduce both UG and PG courses,” an official familiar with the matter informed The Indian Express.

What do the NMC rules say?

Last year in September, the apex medical regulator of the field, the National Medical Commission (NMC), issued a Draft Establishment of Medical College Regulations, (Amendment), 2022. The amendment permitted hospital chains that have previous experience in running medical colleges to open more elsewhere without waiting for the hospitals to get established.

While as per the existing norms, a medical college can be established along with a 300-bed hospital only if it has been functioning for two years, the draft does away with the two-year waiting period norm if the organisation has experience in running a 1,000-bed hospital and medical college anywhere in the country.

The modified qualifying criteria, as mentioned in the amended regulations, states-

The condition of 'fully functional hospital for a minimum period of 2 years' shall not apply in case of Universities or deemed to be universities within the meaning of University Grants Commission Act, 1956, having experience of establishing and running fully functional recognized medical colleges and hospital of 1000 beds or more, for at least two years, anywhere in India, provided that:-

(i) The building of both the hospital and the medical college is owned and managed by the same organization.

(ii) The building of the proposed medical college has not been used for any other purpose before making an application to the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of National Medical Commission (NMC) for establishment of new medical colleges, and

(iii) At the time of application, has an established multi-specialty hospital with at least 1000 in-patient beds and fulfilling all other norms under the regulation."

Read Also: NMC introduces amendments in Establishment of Medical Colleges Regulations, invites comments

Such a relaxation would allow the institutions including the recently established Amrita hospital in Faridabad to start courses immediately as it already runs a well-established hospital and medical college in Kochi.

Addition to MBBS, PG Medical seats in India

Private hospitals commencing MBBS and PG medical courses can be one of the biggest additions to the total seat matrix of medical seats in India.

According to the data shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) recently, a total of 1,00,163 MBBS and 65,335 PG medical seats are currently available in over 655 medical colleges. The Ministry had stated that there is a 69% Increase in Medical Colleges from 387 before 2014 to 655 at present. Further, there is a hike of 95% in MBBS seats from 51,348 before 2014 to 1,00,163 as of now and an increase of 110% in PG seats from 31,185 before 2014 to 65,335 currently.

In December last year, the aggregate stood at 96,077 MBBS and 49,790 Postgraduate medical seats. Since then, the Government has increased the number of medical colleges and subsequently increased MBBS as well as the PG medical seats.